User blog:NibiruMul/Forgotten fairy tale collection reviews, part 1
I've been meaning to blog about this for quite some time now. I want to devote much of my blog to fairy tale related stuff. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be looking at some forgotten fairy tale collections, just to look at some of the history of the genre. I'll probably do somewhere between seven and twelve, since seven and twelve are lucky numbers in fairy tales! The first book I'm going to be doing is The Fairy Book by Dinah Maria Mulock. It was published about 150 years ago, during the 1860s. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this collection, as it is very typically Victorian in style, complete with bowdlerization, moralism (often religious-backed), and occasionally corny writing. However, this collection was once one of the most widely read collections, and it was (to an extent) the collection that inspired Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, so I definitely find it worth reading. Plus there are stories that are unique to this collection. As far as I know, Mulock didn't write any of the stories - she just adapted them. The Fairy Book is still in print, but it's kind of hard to find. I'll only be touching upon a few of the stories; otherwise I'd be here all night. First, let's look at her Sleeping Beauty . This is a typical "Victorian Sleeping Beauty", as I call it. It's based on Perrault's version, but it cuts out the second half of the story. While I didn't care for this particular version, I saw something that seems to pop up in a number of Victorian retellings of Sleeping Beauty. Once the princess and the prince leave the castle, the castle and forest (along with the entire royal court) vanishes into thin air. I am not aware of where this originated, as it does not appear in Perrault's original. While the ending is happy, it is also kind of morbid. In addition to the vanishing castle and royal court, the townsfolk find it hard to believe that the prince's wife was the princess who slept for 100 years. The ending also seems to imply that the days of fairies was over, and that Sleeping Beauty slept through what appears to have been the last days of the fairies. The story of Tom Thumb is another notable one. It's another one I dislike (although in this case I hate the story in general). The titular character becomes one of King Arthur's knights, earns the wrath of the queen, and goes on many adventures, culminating in being killed by a spider. (The spider part is the reason why I hate it - I hate spiders.) This story was once one of the most popular fairy tales in England. Quite notably, this collection has a version of Madame d'Aulnoy's The Imp Prince. Here it's called The Invisible Prince , which is technically the name of a completely different French fairy tale by a woman named Louise Cavelier Levesque (one appearing in Andrew Lang's Yellow Fairy Book - you can read it here). It's the longest story in the collection, and it seems to preserve most of the action - the story itself is awesome! It's even got a pic of Leandre's hat. While I disliked the Latinization of the female characters' names (quite common in Victorian retellings, i.e. changing Florine to Florina and Gentille to Gentilla), overall the story was just as enjoyable as d'Aulnoy's original. The Little Red Riding Hood story in here is based on Perrault's version. I've noticed that Perrault's version was more common in Victorian collections than the Grimms' version. I personally don't like Perrault's version because it's the one that ends in the girl's death. This story is no exception. Little Snowdrop is basically Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I noticed that a lot of 19th century collections refer to Snow White as Snowdrop, while "Snow White" refers to Snow White from Snow White and Rose Red. Surprisingly, this one is unbowdlerized, and includes the original ending where the Evil Queen is forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance in them until she is dead. Now let's look at some of the stories unique to this collection. First up is Adventures of John Dietrich . I don't know where this story came from. It takes place in the Baltic area (around Poland, Lithuania, etc.). This story involves a young man finding some underground people similar to goblins. It's pretty interesting, and has very cool descriptions of the underground people. The only flaw is that this story has very overt religion. Despite identifying as a Roman Catholic, I'm not a fan of religious fiction since sometimes it can get really corny. It's most evident at the part where John converts the underground people. Still, it doesn't take away all of the enjoyment of the story. Overall, kind of a mixed bag. The last line of the story is a bit of a downer too, since it kinda spoils the happy ending. It's similar to the ending of The Three Treasures of the Giants, which appears in Andrew Lang's Orange Fairy Book - the continuation after the main character's death with tragedy described afterwards kinda ruins the seemingly happy ending. House Island is another story. I actually like this story quite a bit. It takes place in Norway. It's about a rich girl named Aslog who is in love with a poor boy named Orm. They marry, live together in happiness on an island, and find a house connected to the underground, where underground people live. It's similar to the above story, There are some religious references, but it's still quite an enjoyable. Now this one is kinda unsavory. It's called The Woodcutter's Daughter . It's about a woodcutter who saves a fairy named Coquette, who promises him and his wife a daughter. (The couple has three grown-up sons.) An ogre named Barabapatapouf curses Rose so that she will be "as black as ebony" and will marry a great king before she is fifteen. As soon as Rose is born, she grows into a 13-year-old girl. The unsavory part is basically how Rose's curse is described. She's basically cursed to be black every second day - the story unfortunately reflects the racist attitudes of the time period. Rose's brothers commit a crime and get the whole family (except Rose) landed in jail. One day, Rose meets a king and sees him on days where the curse isn't happening. He eventually marries Rose, but at the wedding ball, at midnight, Rose turns black and ends up prisoner of her wicked husband. She later meets a peasant and falls in love with him, but can't marry him. When the king dies in a hunting accident, she is finally able to marry her soulmate, and Coquette is able to remove the curse. I admit, I really hated the racism present in the story and definitely would put a warning label on this book because of this cringe-worthy story, though I did think the concept of Prince Charming being evil and the girl's soulmate being a peasant kind of interesting. The Wolf and the Seven Young Goslings is basically The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids with geese instead of goats. I don't know where Mulock got the idea to replace the goats with geese. The Butterfly is another interesting one. It starts with a royal couple wishing for a new daughter after nineteen of theirs had died. Once the princess is born, her parents have a christening feast. A butterfly lands on the princess, and a fairy tells the royal couple that the princess has been cursed to be fickle and frivolous. She is given the name Papillette. The princess grows up very intelligent, but never takes anything seriously. When the king tries to find her a husband, Papillette complains about her suitors and takes them lightly, driving them away. When she meets a prince named Patipata, she resolves to woo him. The fairy turns her into a butterly and she successfully woos Patipata. The story ends happily. This is probably my favorite story that appears only in this collection because it's got colorful descriptions, an engaging plot, and it's not too corny or too preachy. Some other stories that aren't easily recognized: Fortunatus - same story as Fortunatus and his Purse from Andrew Lang's Grey Fairy Book - I have my OCs Cassandra Tychi and Platon Tychis; Fortunatus was originally found in a German chapbook that was popular in the 1500s. Prince Cherry - same story as Prince Darling from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book; originally written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont The Prince with the Nose - same story as Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book; also originally written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont Clever Alice - same story as the Brothers Grimm's Clever Elsie Here's the full list of stories, in order (with more widely recognized titles in parentheses): #The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (Sleeping Beauty) #Hop-o'-my-Thumb #Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper #Adventures of John Dietrich #Beauty and the Beast #Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes (One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes) #Jack the Giant Killer #Tom Thumb #Rumpelstilzchen (Rumpelstiltskin) #Fortunatus #The Bremen Town Musicians #Riquet with the Tuft #House Island #Snow-white and Rose-red #Jack and the Beanstalk #Graciosa and Percinet #The Iron Stove #The Invisible Prince (The Imp Prince/Prince Ariel/Prince Lutin) #The Woodcutter's Daughter #Brother and Sister #Little Red Riding Hood #Puss in Boots #The Wolf and the Seven Young Goslings #The Fair One with Golden Locks (The Story of Pretty Goldilocks) #The Butterfly #The Frog Prince #The White Cat #Prince Cherry (Prince Darling) #Little Snowdrop (Snow White) #The Blue Bird #The Yellow Dwarf #The Six Swans #The Prince with the Nose (Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess) #The Hind of the Forest (The White Doe/The Hind in the Wood) #The Juniper Tree #Clever Alice (Clever Elsie) All in all, this collection is a mixed bag. There's good stories and there's bad stories. It's nowhere near as good as Andrew Lang's collection, but it's definitely worth checking out. Here is the table of contents in case you're curious. Category:Blog posts